The sun is already up too early during summer, another half hour would make it a lot worse... We should just accept that winter sucks, the nights are long no matter how we play with the clocks... Just stick to summer time, that way at least the change to the sucky part of the year is gradual, and not a sudden one-hour shift a lot of people hate.
Not to mention that the one hour shift this way and that still causes issues in most IT systems that need to be cleaned up each year after the change... (mostly when the same time "repeats").
The submission may have been a bit misleading, but it is not DST that is proposed to get abolished, but the DST change. So, each country is free to chose the timezone they'd like to remain in after the DST change is ended. There is a specific question for this in the poll as well (keep summer time, keep winter time or "don't care").
I sure as hell hope the DST change will be ended, and we'll stick to summer time.
My current phone is a Motorola Defy, and with CM7 it's the best phone I had so far. The form-factor is ideal, it's water resistant and generally works just fine. The stock moto rom was unusable, the operator-branded one even more so, but there's nothing wrong with the hardware. My only minor issue with it is the use of the magnetic sensor to detect docking, which doesn't play nice with my magnetic-latch phone holder, but even that can be worked around by uninstalling the stock cardock and clock applications.
Read parent post again. It's about the average user using the same (or the same with minor variation) password on a number online forums etc. With the proposed change even if one of those sites is hacked (or the owner is teh evil), they won't be able use that info on other sites the user may have an account on (with usually the same username/password).
I just tought my kid to ride the bike and I didn't know all this, I just knew that going faster will make it easier for him in the biginning, so that's what I did (running after him to catch him if the coming crash seemed to be to harsh:) and it kinda worked, he learnt riding pretty fast, but I wonder if he could use this conscious understanding of steering to learn faster. I'll definitely try this with my daughter in a year.
I've just read your page on priacy, and I must say, I'm really impressed with your attitude. May I ask how well it actually works? I know I'd feel bad about "redistributing" it, even to my friends, and rather I'd persuade them to actually buy the product, but I'm not the typical warez kiddy either...
Thank you fyngyrz (and others in this thread). This was one of the best discussions I've read on/. in the last year or so.
Making the decision about software licenses is not an easy one, but I agree with you (fyngyrz) on the part that if you want to give it away for free, PD (or BSD) is the "sane" choice. Anything else, and you're not exactly giving it away for free. (BSD is not "giving away for free" in this strict sense, as you ask for a mention of your name, but this restriction is really a lot easier to fulfill than the restriction(s) posed by the GPL).
Well, I can't add much to the discussion really, just wanted to thank you for it:)
For example, it used to be that a socket handle was not a synchronization object, so you couldn't integrate select() calls with other synchronization primitives. Maybe that's been fixed, but if it isn't sockets, it will be something else.
PThreads gives you condition variables. They are harder to program, but once you understand them, you can use them to synchronize on absolutely anything. You aren't dependent on the OS to have foreseen your special needs and provided special synchronization primitives to meet them. This seems to imply that you can syncronize on condition variables and sockets at the same time. I've wrote some threaded server in pthreads some years ago, and I faced the same problem (I needed to wait on either a condition to happen or a socket selector to wake up) and I ended up using a socketpair() between the master and slave threads instead of a condition variable 'cos I couldn't wait on both at the same time. Has something changed in that regard, or I misunderstood you there?
Erm, nice sad story and all, but probably you should just realize that this will only get worse (from your perspective), so you'd better find another business model...
just 2 random thoughts:
- online music stores make a nice profit
- CDs are overpriced
regards, mitch
ps: I know there's a fair chance that I'm replying to a troll, but what the heck;)
Hm, reading all these posts (at least the ones that got moderated up a bit), it seems that I'm the only one actually liking the current design... Anyway, if these new-age-fanboys win, please let us old-timers change back to the (ugly?) old style...
If it were actually _ported_ to linux, the installation would take just as long as on Windows... What he talks about is an ugly hack to let the game run under linux, but I'm sure you know that and just wanted to be witty.
What I don't really get is why don't these companies release a linux version (even a non-supported-use-at-your-own-peril version would be better than doing it the hard way via these emulation layers). In this particular case the porting shouldn't be that hard either, since it already runs on MacOS X / OpenGL. Usually it's being DirectX only that's preventing an easy native linux port.
cheers, mitch
"why would game developers spend the money to add"
on
Does Linux Have Game?
·
· Score: 1
I worked for a game development company for about 2 years. I've done 90% of the development on linux (most guys were coding in windows, but some of us used linux, everyone worked on the platform he felt more comfortable with).
The game (a 3D Commandos like strategy game) was running on both linux (OpenGL) and windows (OpenGL and DirectX). It run a bit better on linux actually. Was the linux version released? Nope. Why? I really don't know. The publisher didn't want to, 'cos they didn't think it had any market-share, or whatever...
So, at least in some cases it wouldn't even be extra cost to put out the linux version, yet it still doesn't happen... It would be nice if publishers at least allowed the developer company to provide the linux binary as a free, non-supported download. That way they'd at least get some feedback on whether it's worth to put it on the official CD or not.
We do have several obstacles to get over before linux mainstream gaming catches on, like supporting the various linux distros, consistent sound/input APIs, etc, but it would really start things going if publishers weren't so conservative about these things when it wouldn't cost them a dime to experiment...
I just wonder if they ever plan to implement storing system clock in UTC format in the BIOS... it's such a pain now really with all the daylight saving hell, especially with dualboot.
See a nice explanation here,
and see why it probably never gonna be done here (just check out some of the comments there... sad...)
oh well...
Re:Meanwhile, C++ goes nowhere
on
Java 1.5 vs C#
·
· Score: 1
I haven't seen it mentioned in this discussion (not so surprising, 'cos it's about java and c# after all), but anyway: take a look at boost. This is the stuff they hope will be in the next standards. Very nice libs (mostly template magic)
However, your ClassCastExceptions will only get bumped to compile time in JDK 1.5, true. But I must admit that in eight years of Java programming, I've never had this particular problem where it didn't take more than a few seconds to find the source of the bug.
Yeah, it's nice to wake up at 03:00 AM for a call and listening to a stack trace from the Operations guy, and "taking that few minutes" to track down the problem... Compile time error reporting is Good Thing (TM). Java containers are still far-far away from STL, for example, but this check at least makes them a bit less frustrating to work with...
<troll>If it were a closed source application, it would have been higher quality because it went through QA, and not had such obvious bugs in the first place.</troll>
In many cases, you CAN do something worthwhile, even if it's a large project. I needed to "get under the hood" with glibc, gdb and vim, for example. In glibc's case, I found the problem, fixed it, went around to file a report with the fix and found out it was fixed in CVS, bummer:)
The gdb case was more important, 'cos that bug was getting in our way to debug our application. If it were a closed source debugger, my only bet would be to mail the developers/publishers and hope for the best. With the open-source gdb, it took me a day and a half to find and fix the problem. It wasn't a "clean" fix, 'cos, as you say, it's not easy to understand such a huge piece of software to the extent required to write a correct fix, but it "worked for us", and could continue working on OUR product (I reported the bug, and it was fixed "correctly" in 5.2).
One other issue: the source is the ultimate documentation. If something doesn't work as you expect, you have an additional option: check the source. In many cases you'll find the problem (sometimes the problem will just be a misunderstanding on your part, or a bad assumption, and sometimes you find a bug). Again, with closed source, you don't have this extra option.
be weaker (where container is a template instanciated for int specifically, so you get compile time error) than Integer i = (Integer)container.get(0)
where you'll get a runtime cast exception if you happen to be unlucky?
2.) Compile time checking of capabilities can be done with templates. Check out for example the Concept Check library of boost.
3.) reusability rubbish? not if you want a type safe, efficient container library for example (no, the current java library is not type safe. See point 1. And it's not efficient either (try storing ints in a HashMap for example)
4.) I've never heard about any such constraints for banking software, but you might be right on this one. I'd be surprised though, since I'm pretty sure some banking software is written in c++, and the standard library is using templates heavily) Templates creating security holes are beyond me, though...
5.) Compilers getting slower doesn't really matter. Correctness proof is not possible in general (at least, not feasible for real world applications). Templates make this maybe twice as hard. So?
oh well, at least your post was not "informative", but "interesting"...
Would you please explain? Why are c++ exceptions so bad, and what part of STL is just as bad?
I admit, the template syntax is painful at times, but it works, and I do believe it'll get better. Take a look at boost.org, there they do a lot of neat stuff, and when they hit some barrier, those barriers will be dealt with in the next c++ standard. At least that's the point, as far as I know.
I haven't used exceptions really in C++ (I've been doing java for some time now, and before that exceptions in c++ were not really supported), but I'm going to do some c++ development again for fun, and I'd really like to know what's wrong with exceptions. Thanks
Is (n == 0) more readable or does it merely mimick the style of the textbooks we read?
It's more readable for me, becaues I read
if (n == 0) as "if n is zero", while I'd read if (0 == n) as "if 0 is n" which just doesn't really make sense at first;)
That's a nice idea. Unfortunately it doesn't work. In reality, a lot of duplication of effort is done becouse of GPL libs (like readline), since the choice is almost never to make the whole bunch GPL, but to rewrite the necessary bits (usually under a BSD or other "free" license).
I wonder why those idiots with no more to say than "bsd is dying", "pull the plug", "bsd sux, linux rulez" are not simply filtering out BSD related posts and be done with it... they get moderated down to oblivion anyway...
I'm personally very happy with FreeBSD, thank you. Hope SMP support (and pthreads support) will get better soon now. Can't wait for 5.x becoming -STABLE.:)
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The sun is already up too early during summer, another half hour would make it a lot worse...
We should just accept that winter sucks, the nights are long no matter how we play with the clocks...
Just stick to summer time, that way at least the change to the sucky part of the year is gradual, and not a sudden one-hour shift a lot of people hate.
Not to mention that the one hour shift this way and that still causes issues in most IT systems that need to be cleaned up each year after the change... (mostly when the same time "repeats").
The submission may have been a bit misleading, but it is not DST that is proposed to get abolished, but the DST change. So, each country is free to chose the timezone they'd like to remain in after the DST change is ended. There is a specific question for this in the poll as well (keep summer time, keep winter time or "don't care").
I sure as hell hope the DST change will be ended, and we'll stick to summer time.
Vim "integration" is pretty nice with the vrapper plugin.
My current phone is a Motorola Defy, and with CM7 it's the best phone I had so far. The form-factor is ideal, it's water resistant and generally works just fine. The stock moto rom was unusable, the operator-branded one even more so, but there's nothing wrong with the hardware.
My only minor issue with it is the use of the magnetic sensor to detect docking, which doesn't play nice with my magnetic-latch phone holder, but even that can be worked around by uninstalling the stock cardock and clock applications.
Read parent post again. It's about the average user using the same (or the same with minor variation) password on a number online forums etc. With the proposed change even if one of those sites is hacked (or the owner is teh evil), they won't be able use that info on other sites the user may have an account on (with usually the same username/password).
At least that's how I understand it.
cheers,
mitch
Nice post, thanks!
:) and it kinda worked, he learnt riding pretty fast, but I wonder if he could use this conscious understanding of steering to learn faster. I'll definitely try this with my daughter in a year.
I just tought my kid to ride the bike and I didn't know all this, I just knew that going faster will make it easier for him in the biginning, so that's what I did (running after him to catch him if the coming crash seemed to be to harsh
cheers,
mitch
I've just read your page on priacy, and I must say, I'm really impressed with your attitude. May I ask how well it actually works? I know I'd feel bad about "redistributing" it, even to my friends, and rather I'd persuade them to actually buy the product, but I'm not the typical warez kiddy either...
cheers,
mitch
Thank you fyngyrz (and others in this thread). This was one of the best discussions I've read on /. in the last year or so.
:)
Making the decision about software licenses is not an easy one, but I agree with you (fyngyrz) on the part that if you want to give it away for free, PD (or BSD) is the "sane" choice. Anything else, and you're not exactly giving it away for free. (BSD is not "giving away for free" in this strict sense, as you ask for a mention of your name, but this restriction is really a lot easier to fulfill than the restriction(s) posed by the GPL).
Well, I can't add much to the discussion really, just wanted to thank you for it
cheers,
mitch
PThreads gives you condition variables. They are harder to program, but once you understand them, you can use them to synchronize on absolutely anything. You aren't dependent on the OS to have foreseen your special needs and provided special synchronization primitives to meet them. This seems to imply that you can syncronize on condition variables and sockets at the same time. I've wrote some threaded server in pthreads some years ago, and I faced the same problem (I needed to wait on either a condition to happen or a socket selector to wake up) and I ended up using a socketpair() between the master and slave threads instead of a condition variable 'cos I couldn't wait on both at the same time. Has something changed in that regard, or I misunderstood you there?
thanks,
mitch
Erm, nice sad story and all, but probably you should just realize that this will only get worse (from your perspective), so you'd better find another business model...
;)
just 2 random thoughts:
- online music stores make a nice profit
- CDs are overpriced
regards,
mitch
ps: I know there's a fair chance that I'm replying to a troll, but what the heck
Hm, reading all these posts (at least the ones that got moderated up a bit), it seems that I'm the only one actually liking the current design... Anyway, if these new-age-fanboys win, please let us old-timers change back to the (ugly?) old style...
cheers,
mitch
If it were actually _ported_ to linux, the installation would take just as long as on Windows... What he talks about is an ugly hack to let the game run under linux, but I'm sure you know that and just wanted to be witty.
What I don't really get is why don't these companies release a linux version (even a non-supported-use-at-your-own-peril version would be better than doing it the hard way via these emulation layers). In this particular case the porting shouldn't be that hard either, since it already runs on MacOS X / OpenGL. Usually it's being DirectX only that's preventing an easy native linux port.
cheers,
mitch
I worked for a game development company for about 2 years. I've done 90% of the development on linux (most guys were coding in windows, but some of us used linux, everyone worked on the platform he felt more comfortable with).
The game (a 3D Commandos like strategy game) was running on both linux (OpenGL) and windows (OpenGL and DirectX). It run a bit better on linux actually. Was the linux version released? Nope. Why? I really don't know. The publisher didn't want to, 'cos they didn't think it had any market-share, or whatever...
So, at least in some cases it wouldn't even be extra cost to put out the linux version, yet it still doesn't happen... It would be nice if publishers at least allowed the developer company to provide the linux binary as a free, non-supported download. That way they'd at least get some feedback on whether it's worth to put it on the official CD or not.
We do have several obstacles to get over before linux mainstream gaming catches on, like supporting the various linux distros, consistent sound/input APIs, etc, but it would really start things going if publishers weren't so conservative about these things when it wouldn't cost them a dime to experiment...
cheers,
mitch
See a nice explanation here, and see why it probably never gonna be done here (just check out some of the comments there... sad...)
oh well...
I haven't seen it mentioned in this discussion (not so surprising, 'cos it's about java and c# after all), but anyway: take a look at boost. This is the stuff they hope will be in the next standards. Very nice libs (mostly template magic)
cheers,
mitch
Yeah, it's nice to wake up at 03:00 AM for a call and listening to a stack trace from the Operations guy, and "taking that few minutes" to track down the problem... Compile time error reporting is Good Thing (TM).
Java containers are still far-far away from STL, for example, but this check at least makes them a bit less frustrating to work with...
cheers,
mitch
Try Subversion. AFAIR it supports symlinks now, and is much better than CVS in general.
/etc is certainly possible. you might also want to check out tools like rcsvi (should be adapted to SVN, in this case)
a versioned
cheers,
mitch
Har har
In many cases, you CAN do something worthwhile, even if it's a large project. I needed to "get under the hood" with glibc, gdb and vim, for example. In glibc's case, I found the problem, fixed it, went around to file a report with the fix and found out it was fixed in CVS, bummer :)
The gdb case was more important, 'cos that bug was getting in our way to debug our application. If it were a closed source debugger, my only bet would be to mail the developers/publishers and hope for the best. With the open-source gdb, it took me a day and a half to find and fix the problem. It wasn't a "clean" fix, 'cos, as you say, it's not easy to understand such a huge piece of software to the extent required to write a correct fix, but it "worked for us", and could continue working on OUR product (I reported the bug, and it was fixed "correctly" in 5.2).
One other issue: the source is the ultimate documentation. If something doesn't work as you expect, you have an additional option: check the source. In many cases you'll find the problem (sometimes the problem will just be a misunderstanding on your part, or a bad assumption, and sometimes you find a bug). Again, with closed source, you don't have this extra option.
oh well
1.) Type checking is much weaker? How could
int i = container.get(0);
be weaker (where container is a template instanciated for int specifically, so you get compile time error) than
Integer i = (Integer)container.get(0)
where you'll get a runtime cast exception if you happen to be unlucky?
2.) Compile time checking of capabilities can be done with templates. Check out for example the Concept Check library of boost.
3.) reusability rubbish? not if you want a type safe, efficient container library for example (no, the current java library is not type safe. See point 1. And it's not efficient either (try storing ints in a HashMap for example)
4.) I've never heard about any such constraints for banking software, but you might be right on this one. I'd be surprised though, since I'm pretty sure some banking software is written in c++, and the standard library is using templates heavily) Templates creating security holes are beyond me, though...
5.) Compilers getting slower doesn't really matter. Correctness proof is not possible in general (at least, not feasible for real world applications). Templates make this maybe twice as hard. So?
oh well, at least your post was not "informative", but "interesting"...
cheers,
mitch
I admit, the template syntax is painful at times, but it works, and I do believe it'll get better. Take a look at boost.org, there they do a lot of neat stuff, and when they hit some barrier, those barriers will be dealt with in the next c++ standard. At least that's the point, as far as I know.
I haven't used exceptions really in C++ (I've been doing java for some time now, and before that exceptions in c++ were not really supported), but I'm going to do some c++ development again for fun, and I'd really like to know what's wrong with exceptions. Thanks
cheers,
mitch
It's more readable for me, becaues I read ;)
if (n == 0)
as "if n is zero", while I'd read
if (0 == n)
as "if 0 is n" which just doesn't really make sense at first
so all in all, I prefer n == 0.
cheers, mitch
That's a nice idea. Unfortunately it doesn't work. In reality, a lot of duplication of effort is done becouse of GPL libs (like readline), since the choice is almost never to make the whole bunch GPL, but to rewrite the necessary bits (usually under a BSD or other "free" license).
oh, well...
cheers,
mitch
heh, good point. will remember ;)
I wonder why those idiots with no more to say than "bsd is dying", "pull the plug", "bsd sux, linux rulez" are not simply filtering out BSD related posts and be done with it... they get moderated down to oblivion anyway...
:)
I'm personally very happy with FreeBSD, thank you.
Hope SMP support (and pthreads support) will get better soon now. Can't wait for 5.x becoming -STABLE.